Marble Bar

Marble Bar holds the Australian record for sustained heat: from October 1923 to April 1924, the temperature reached or passed one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, about 37.8 Celsius, on one hundred and sixty consecutive days, and the town has traded on being the hottest in the country ever since. Its name comes from a bar of banded rock crossing the Coongan River nearby, which early settlers took for marble and which is actually jasper, striped red, white and grey, best seen wet. The Comet Gold Mine outside town has a museum and a tall chimney, and the Ironclad Hotel of 1892 still trades. The surrounding Pilbara rock is among the oldest on earth.

History

The prospector Francis Jenkins, remembered in the name of the main street, found gold in the area in 1890, the town was gazetted in 1893, and in 1891 the rush had already brought more than 5,000 people; nuggets such as the 413-ounce Bobby Dazzler, the 333-ounce Little Hero and the 332-ounce General Gordon came from the fields around it. Its name comes from a bar of jasper across the Coongan River taken for marble, the government offices of local stone were built by 1895 and still stand, and the corrugated iron Ironclad Hotel of the 1890s was named by American miners after the ironclad warships of the United States Navy; the town predates Port Hedland, Newman and Karratha and was the social centre of the Pilbara in the early 1900s (Wikipedia, Marble Bar, Western Australia).

What you'll find

• The jasper bar - the banded rock crossing the Coongan River.
• The Ironclad Hotel - the 1892 corrugated iron pub in town.
• The Comet Mine - the mine museum and chimney outside town.
• The heat record - the town's identity built on 160 consecutive hot days.

When to go

May to August; from October to March the heat is extreme, regularly above forty-five degrees, and the wet season can cut roads. Even in winter the days are warm. Visitors come partly to say they have been.

Practical notes

There is very little in the town itself, and the drive from Port Hedland takes over two hours each way. Summer travel here is genuinely uncomfortable and can be hazardous. Services are minimal, with one pub, a store and a caravan park.

Nearby

Port Hedland lies northwest; the Pilbara ranges are south.

Key facts